So Yugioh (as it always manages to do) has become horribly stale with a solved meta and huge price of entry. Put in simpler terms: Spyral is too good and Ash Blossom and Joyous Spring is too expensive. I think I can quickly explain how Konami North America can fix the format and make the game more enjoyable and accessible.

Step 1: Give us a real Banlist that kills the established decks

The format is being run by the bogeymen of the past. I actually think that all of the Vrains era archetypes (even to an extent Trickstars) are fair, balanced and promote a somewhat back and forth gameplay…

Well maybe not World Chalice…

It’s only a handful of antiqued decks and problem cards in the current meta that are stifling newer play styles. It’s not that Magical Musketeers are bad, its’ that older decks like ABC are still too good. I think Konami is making a clear effort to make archetypes weaker and to make generic link monsters much better (I know that the Crystron Link will break the game in 2 eventually). Anyway, I might as well get to banlist part since that’s what 90% of ppl are here for.

Spyral

While Spyral only recently got its Link monster, its already proven too powerful to be allowed to live. The fact that every deck must run 5+ handtraps just to stymie the Spyral deck is absurd. Furthermore, Spyral exemplifies what I like to call the “10 minute turn”. This was started by Nekroz, made commonplace by Zoodiac and now has been perfected by Spyral. Basically the Spyral plays and combos take a large amount of time which causes their turns to be super long. This is the least fun aspect of the game because you know in your gut as you watch them play that unless you have a handtrap you likely won’t get much of a turn to play afterwards. Basically I think Spyral needs to be knocked down… hard. So much so that its best card should be banned…

I would like to see Spyral Resort banned as it provides the deck insane consistency. With Resort gone the deck would also lose access to Masterplan along with most of its basic combos. This will NOT kill the deck. Similar to Zoodiac players will innovate the deck to keep it meta relevant, which is fine. We need Spyral hit to give slower decks some breathing room. This in turn would lesson the need for handtraps. In my humble opinion the only reason handtraps are so good is because Spyral has gotten us in the mindset of “if I don’t stop them turn 1 I can’t play”. If the format slowed down, then handtraps would lose their relevance.

TLDR: Ban Spyral Resort

Invoked, ABC and Paleo

None of these decks are particularly oppressive, but all of them have overstayed their welcome as far as being meta relevant. I think Konami could seriously consider hitting all of these decks just to make people stop playing them. Also it should be pointed out THAT EVERY ONE OF THESE DECKS WAS ALREADY HIT IN THE OCG AGES AGO! I’m not going to say that Toad, Aleister and Dragon Buster all need to go to 1, but that I wouldn’t be surprised if they did, nor would I be upset.

Masterpeace was the problem, not Dinomight Knight. This deck like the former is just too good for the newer archetypes to handle because it inherently violates the basic rules of the game (multiple tribute summons per turn and tribute summoning without having to run bricky low level monsters) and is incredible in the grind game (True King’s Return smiles from the clouds). Yeah I think Masterpeace belongs at 1. The deck will still be playable, but not nearly as strong. Also I know that Masterpeace is searchable off Diagram and that some builds only play 1. However, I think Masterpeace to 1 would weaken the deck enough that ppl won’t play it that much.

TLDR: Limit Masterpeace the True Draco Slaying King to 1

Pendulum Magicians

Once Pendulums get Heavymetalfoes Electrumite in the new set it’s power and consistency will go through the roof. To prevent them from getting out of hand, I have a slightly unorthodox hit in mind.

Put Time Pendulumgraph to 1…

Now just wait a second and here me out…

I know that the threat of the deck lies in its ability to plus like crazy, but isn’t one of the biggest problems that it ends on the trap with Purple Poison Magician in scale? Scrap Dragon was a great Yugioh card. The Phantom Knights of Breaksword was an even greater Yugioh card. Well Time Pendulumgraph is like both of those cards on steroids. I’m not confident that limiting the trap to 1 will actually even hurt Pendulum Magicians. At the same time I’m not sure if a trap deserves to be banned in a format where we see very few trap cards see any play at all. I also don’t want to re-limit Skull Crobat Joker or Wisdom Eye since that would be akin to when Konami un-banned and then quickly re-banned Snatch Steal. It makes it seem too much like they made a clear mistake. For now I say hit the trap and see what happens. Also I know that the trap is searchable and that some builds only play 1. Despite this I think that if you can kill the trap once you should be safe.

TLDR: Limit Time Pendulumgraph to 1

Trickstar

I had to put this somewhere. Trickstar is totally fair (annoying, but fair) outside of the interaction between its themed trap Trickstar Reincarnation and the old handtrap Droll&Lock Bird. There is no reason why a combo that denies the opponent their whole hand should be allowed to exist in modern era Yugioh. I don’t care if its inconsistent. I don’t care if it only happens 2 games out of a 9 round tournament. This is literally the most unfair play of the format. If we put Reincarnation to 1, then the combo has to rely on the unsearchable card Disturbance Strategy and thus becomes nearly impossible to pull off. Does limiting Reincarnation kill Trickstar? It does hurt the deck insanely, but I think eradicating the salt from hand-looping players is well worth that risk.

TLDR: Limit Trickstar Reincarnation to 1

I’ll save Step 2 for another day. Just to be clear these aren’t necessarily the hits I want as much as hits I think could happen. Also I’m not an authority enough on Yugioh to say that any of these hits are truly correct. Feel free to tell me that I’m wrong and what other cards should be hit. I’ll gladly reply to civil comments. I will also just as easily delete troll comments.

I’ve told a lot of people this in passing, but I’m not sure if I ever formally put this up on the blog. Basically there is one thing that would make me refuse to ever support Konami again. It’s a very trivial thing compared to the constant powercreep, $60 staple format staples and toxic player-base, but no this one action would enrage me to the point of no return.

If they ever reprint the Egyptian God cards at common, I will quit Yugioh.

I’ll promptly sell my binder along with all my loose cards and, abandon competitive play (for good) and refuse to ever purchase another Konami product for the rest of my life.

Before recently I thought this would never happen, but after watching the trajectory of the Legendary Decks in terms of common reprints I just can’t ignore the possibility anymore.

(Disclaimer: 2018 will be a series of shorter, more spontaneous blog posts because contrary to my lack of posts I do want to discuss card games. It just always happens when I’m not at my desk with free time. For long time readers of this blog I thank you for bearing with me for all these years. I hope I can continue to offer an interesting look into these hobbies while I have the time for any of them!)

Not really excited to discuss this because to make a long story short I scrubbed out hard at this regional. I had a good deck built (really), but between a few misplays and some bad breaks everything went to hell.

My Deck:

Main Deck

Best card in the deck was Terraforming hands down. This card easily set up the deck’s basic combos and unbricked my hands.

Worst card in the deck was Psy-Framegear Gamma. Despite his impressive price tag I never had a situation where I got to use him as anything, but a 1 for 1 negate (Not to mention the time I banished the Driver off Desires).

Extra Deck

MVP was obviously Dragon Buster, followed by Diamond Dire and Bagooska. Black Rose came up one. I made Tsukuyomi once to discard 2 dead Gammas.

Side Deck

Gamaciel was the best card in my side deck easily.

Match-ups:

Round 1 Vs Nimble Mermails

My opponent had max rarity Mermails employing the Nimble Engine for easy access to the Link Monster Mistar Boy. Unfortunately his only answer to ABC Dragon Buster was to fairly try to attack over it with Abyss Megalo. The hightlight of this round was when he used Mind Control to take my Decode Talker (while I had Decode + Buster) and then played Dark Hole. He only realized afterwards how neg this play was.

Win 2-0

Round 2 Vs Pendulum Magicians

Game 1 he smacked me with the power of Wavering Eyes when I tried to Twin Twister his scales. I lost from that point (which was sadly 1 minute into his first turn). Game 2 he used Winter Cherries to banish all of my Buster Dragons, but I had Anti-Spell so I still won easily. Game 3 I made Black Rose to wipe out his board and he never recovered.

Win 2-1

Round 3 Vs Cyber Dragons

Yup I was pretty happy before I realized that my opponent was on a rogue deck THAT HAPPENS TO HAVE A GREAT MATCH UP AGAINST ME. Game 1 I win off Anti-Spell and the luck that he never had a Cyber to fuse with my Buster. Game 2 one of the most tilting things to happen me occurred. His board was Cyber Dragon Infinity and a regular Cyber Dragon with a full Graveyard. My hand was Raigeki, Systerm Down and the last ABC piece needed for Buster. I baited the Infinity with Raigeki, but when I play System Down he chains Artifact Lancea which was the last card in his hand. Unable to out his board or make Buster I lose. Game 3 I brick and end on Bagooska pass. He summons Cyber Dragon fuses with my Bagooska and then beats me to death with it.

Loss 1-2

Round 4 Vs True King Dinosaurs

Game 1 I played through his True King of All Calamities and beat him. Game 2 I play through his board of Decode, Ultimate Conductor Tyranno, and Laggia, but I make a crucial misplay. I had 2 Dragon Busters out (one set by the Conductor). His hand has 2 cards. He played Dragonic Diagram and I banish it with Buster. He then summons another Ultimate Conductor Tyranno and runs over my Buster for game….

I never recovered from the pain of that loss and it loomed over me for the rest of the event…

We played Game 3 in time. He played through Ghost Ogre and Gamma to assemble a huge board whereas I failed to do anything so I lost after he used Laggia to negate my Buster Dragon.

Loss 1-2

Round 5 Vs Spellbook True Draco

My opponent bricked game 1 and literally did nothing to stop me from attacking him/accrue advantage. Game 2 I had the Kaijus for his Master Peace and I won way too easily.

Win 2-0

Round 6 Vs Pure True Draco

Not sure what to say here. He obliterated me (figuratively not literally) game 1. Game 2 I Kaiju’d his Master Peace and won. Game 3 he broke my board and killed me. Dude showed me some cards from Precious Memories (which seems to be another Weiss Schwarz style game), so that was cool I guess.

Loss 1-2

At this point with little chance to top the regional and nothing but stress I dropped out of the tournament…

What did I learn?

Well once again that Psy-Framegear Gamma was a mistake. I bricked with it in my hand 5 times and not once did the seemingly obvious scenario of Gamma negate handtrap make Omega during my turn come up.

The new format post-November 6th Banlist is actually really diverse in terms of what decks can be piloted. I would honestly say my only “problem” with Yugioh is that Ash Blossom is $70 and is without a doubt a staple in the format. That being said Ash didn’t actually feel that unfair. I don’t know maybe I’m just losing it, but Ghost Ogre was more back-breaking when it came up.

Basically the title is a nod to that fact that I never played against Spyrals. I sat next to Spyrals quite a bit though. As this might help more than my experience here’s a list of the decks I saw at the regional:

Spyrals

True Draco

Trickstar

ABC

Invoked

Burning Abyss

Mermails

Cyber Dragons

True King Dinos

Pendulum Magicians

Blue Eyes White Dragon

Red Eyes Black Dragon

Kozmo

So credit where its due. Konami fixed the tier 1 format and it feels little bit like 2014 (the golden age of deck diversity).

And in case it wasn’t obvious I didn’t buy the Ash Blossoms, Ghost Ogres, System Downs or Twin Twisters. I want to give thanks to friends in our little Yugioh circle for loaning them to me and for giving me encouragement throughout the event.

October was a busy month for me due to adult life so I’m going to slam a bunch of event summaries and photos into this one post. I honestly wish I posted more, but here’s what I got.

Spyral Fever

So I have to thank the tier 0 nightmare of Spyrals for one of the most fun Yugioh trips I’ve had in ages. Basically as I’m sure you know if you’ve come this far into card gaming chaos that they released a new Yugioh set called Circuit Break and that in this set there was a new card called Spyral Double Helix which propelled the Spyral deck from fun jank deck to tier 0 powerhouse. I had said Spyral deck and had for the first time in ages that opportunity to play a meta Yugioh deck.

As you probably already know I flipped that deck on ebay immediately right before the set dropped. This funded my trip to New York City to hang out with friends, go to Sneak Peek and ultimately the Brooklyn Regional!

Circuit Breaker Sneak Peak

So first of all I need to make the sad declaration that Circuit Break was not kind to me (or most of my crew). I opened 15 sneak peek packs and my best pull was the Ultra Rare RivalArrival card…

I didn’t even open enough Altergeists to build a deck, but luckily that was a temporary problem. Being a prominent deck in the new anime I spent the weekend and the rest of the month trading/buying the rest of the deck. I would’ve done the same with the Rokkets, but many of them are Secret Rares so I’m hoping to wait until the Special Edition comes out to lower their prices.

Sneak Peek Mat Tournament

We entered a sneak tournament where my buddies played each other in the finals (we bamboozled the store by having one friend scoop so they could play for the mat later (and let us leave to get dinner).

Round 1 Vs Paleo

Loss 1-2

I got to play against a youtuber (Davinator212) with my Zoodiac Stun deck (don’t try this at home kids). Regrettably I lost in time due to a misplay.

The worst misplay of the day though goes to my buddy who set his Time Pendulumgraph trap card in his Pendulum Scale…

He went on to lose this match and has been ripped on for it ever since.

Goat Format

So due to an increasing disdain with modern yugioh I really got onboard when one of my mates said we should all play goat format. I don’t know if I ever brought this up before, but seems as good a time as ever. Basically goat format is yugioh with the 2004/2005 banlist so the games are glacially slow and reward slow card advantage and grinding. I can safely say these games have been some of my most beloved games of Yugioh. We played quite a bit of goat during the trip so it’s fresh in my mind.

Brooklyn Regional

So the first thing I should say is that I put 0 effort into my deck and scrounged together an ABC deck literally the Saturday before the regional. I also added the additional condition of not borrowing a single card from my friends. Sound hard? Well it was. I played a very bad deck:

You know the deck is bad when I didn’t even take a photo of it at the venue. Ignore the Dragon’s Ravine and the fact I don’t recall the rest of my extra deck…

Round 1 Vs Pendulum Magician

Loss 0-2

I was completely overwhelmed by what was at the time the best deck.

Round 2 Vs Pendulum Magician

Win 2-1

My opponent made several misplays while his buddies hovered around him.

Round 3 vs Pure True Draco

Loss 0-2

Opened triple Ghost Reaper game 1, my set rotation lock was outed immediately by cosmic cyclone.

Round 4 Vs Lightsworn

Win 2-0

My opponent was not very good, I went out of my way to win with Topological Bomber Dragon for fun.

Round 5 Vs Invoked Draco

Win 2-1

Between his bricks and my decent plays I managed to win.

Round 6 Vs Spellbook True Draco

Loss 1-2

I was getting pretty tired at this point and I couldn’t focus during the duel. Once again the set rotation lock failed.

Round 7 Vs Pure True Draco

Win 2-1

I have no recollection of this match and didn’t make any notes on it…

Round 8 Vs True Draco ABC

Loss 0-2

I opened Oracle of Zefra thus making my combo dead. I got steamrolled.

Round 9 Vs Pure ABC

Win 2-0

I Ghost Reaper’d his Dragon Buster both games. It was pretty anticlimactic.

What this tournament taught me was something I already knew, but never took to heart. I could easily have competitive success in Yugioh if I actually cared to construct a complete deck. I’m not going to say I didn’t make tons of misplays, but after awhile you just get the flow of the game down pat. My deck held me back, but I still got 93rd place.

Highlight of the Regional was definitely getting Italian pro player Marcelo Barberi’s autograph. In hindsight I wish I got a card signed, but I didn’t have a sharpie on me.

Other than that here are some of the best Yugioh board states I saw/created during the month of October:

And finally my acquisitions from the Regional/Sneak Peaks:

Magic Standard Showdown?!

My buddy told me that at the Thursday Standard Showdown for Magic that the attendance was so low that they would give us packs just for entering. I threw together a deck of the draft bulk I found at the store, bought a few more copies of Lord of the Accursed and tadah! Black-White Zombies.

Unfortunately, a bunch of people showed up and we actually had to play in the tournament…

Round 1 Vs UB Control

Loss 1-2

The mere fact I took a game off a real deck made my heart almost stop. In Oketra’s Name iss actually a really good card.

Round 2

BYE

Round 3 Vs 4 Color EDH Control Stuff

Win 2-1

I played my friend and actually won the match thanks to janky enchantments I sided in.

Round 4 Vs Jund Energy

Loss 0-2

Yeah this wasn’t even a real fight…

And the final joke was that we did get packs just for entering, but our pulls were…

Yep Standard Showdown, once and never again…

And that’s about it for my October adventures is squandering precious resources on shiny cardboard. I’m going to a Yugioh Regional tomorrow so hopefully won’t take me a month to discuss what happened.

It’s only due to a mix of sleep deprivation, extreme happiness and slight intoxication that’s finally getting me to address the elephant in the room. I haven’t posted here in almost 2 months. The world of card games has changed while I remained inert and silent. Banlists dropped, formats changes and did buy plenty of product, but I did it all in silence. Why you may ask? Well I realized something pretty important. Trying to play and collect all of these card games was already a pipe dream. Maintaining interest and following set releases is really hard. That’s why I started to branch out and hire guest writers (who I actually paid) to specialize in each game. Still even that was impossible to keep up. What happened to make things so difficult? Well it was quite simple really. I finished college.

During my time in school I could devote my money and far too much of my time to all this card game stuff. Summer 2017 brought me into the world of adulthood wherein even following ONE card game is a challenge. When you combine that with how honestly on the fringe I was with most of these games, it became pretty likely that I wouldn’t be able to follow them. That being said there was a time when I truly cared about this blog. It would be wrong to just let it die quietly.

So here’s:

My 5 AM unfiltered thoughts on each card game as of right now

Literally every major card game event/thing that happened to me since my last post

My fanatical love of this game and franchise is unquestionable. The floor of my apartment has been coated in Yugioh cards for weeks at a time.

My collection of anime decks has long surpassed 100 completed decks. I’ve got them all organized by series in the corner of my room now.

It’s a 100% established fact that Yugioh is my favorite trading card game. I’ve even been dabbling back and forth with meta…

(aka bricking) but I still consider myself both a very die-hard and eccentric collector.

Status: Actively Following, Buying, Collecting, Playing

Magic the Gathering

Magic will always be my second favorite game. It has a richness and depth that both intrigues and terrifies me. I know almost every Yugioh that exists. I don’t know half of the Magic cards that exist. Since I moved to my new apartment my Yugioh cads have littered the floor while my Magic cards have gone untouched. I like watching Magic (especially StarCityGames replays) that much I know. However when it comes down to playing it I barely do or try to. All of my passion for

Status: Actively Following Standard and Modern, Infrequent Play due to Yugioh

And now for all of those other games…

Pokemon

I have never liked that in Pokemon it feels like comebacks are infrequent. Once you’re losing in prize cards it feels impossible to catch up. And yes I know there are supporter/trainer cards that support the losing player. They just don’t feel like enough to me. Also actually watching Pokemon feels like Legacy or Vintage Magic to me. I just can’t play the game anymore and I haven’t followed it in months. My deck has long since rotated.

Status: Has 2 rotated decks and half a binder, Not Collecting or Playing

Force of Will

I honestly loved this game. I gave it a lot of time, money and attention all for it to completely fail me. I sold all but my most beloved cards from the era in which I played. Some swell chap in Germany bought my whole collection on Ebay. I pray those cards are serving him well. I occasionally see spoilers for new cards and to be honest I loved playing Force of Will (my decks still exist), but I don’t think I’ll be playing it ever again.

Status: Morally opposed to it in every way, has a binder and 2 decks as a keepsake

Naruto

Naruto was a weird mix of Pokemon and Magic that I honestly found very enjoyable. Unfortunately Naruto died in like 2013 and there’s no changing that. I only ever had one friend (after Middle school) who played/collected the cards and he’s back in New Jersey. These cards now rest in half of a binder while I ponder how to get rid of my bulk.

Status: Half of keepsake binder and 2 tins of unwanted bulk left

My Little Pony

I never gave this game a fair attempt. We played it incorrectly a few times (trying to force multiplayer), and I think I only played it normally twice. This game was just a bit tedious and the only novelty was that concept of “fighting” with the ponies. Oddly enough all my decks are still built, but this game is likely to waste away in my storage box.

Status: Like 6 decks just lying around

Cardfight Vanguard

I don’t like playing this game. I really like the artwork of certain cards and I enjoyed collecting those cards (back when I had money to throw away). However, now I can’t say I would ever willingly play Cardfight. The gameplay just upsets me and I don’t know if that will ever change. I do still love the Bermuda Triangle and Angel cards. Somehow I never made a binder for them though.

Status: 2 large piles of cards that really need a binder

Wixoss

Wixoss died when my friend Kenny vanished. He was the biggest advocate for this game. Without him I lost all interest as did my friend group. I stopped following the show and the sets. My decks are still together, but Kenny took all my other cards so those 4 decks are all I have left.

Status: Selector Abandoned Wixoss

Weiss Schwarz

Weiss is the best card game to not play. I love getting cards of my favorite anime characters because I’m a colossal nerd. Just having the cards makes me happy. Actually playing the game however has never worked out. With the exception of one Sword Art Online player, EVERY PERSON I’ve ever played Weiss with has gotten incredibly mad during the course of the game due to a bad card flip or pull. Like they would get so angry that I would feel uncomfortable. This made Weiss increasingly unpleasant to play so I dismantled all my decks. I still love the cards, but adding to a Weiss binder is all I plan to do if even that.

Status: One binder filled to capacity (also these status posts sure have degraded over time huh?)

Fire Emblem Cipher

Uh I learned how to play this at 2 AM. I remember nothing about how to play. I’m not a Fire Emblem fan, THOUGH I am enjoying the phone game so that may change. I can’t really comment on the game.

Status: I swear I have these cards somewhere…)

What happened:

Philly Regional

I attended the Philly Regional on September 9th. I borrowed a friend’s True Draco Demise deck. This is a chunk of it.

I went 4-4-1 and placed 140th out of roughly 500. While not great this was the highest I’ve ever placed in Philly.

Ixalan Pre-Release

I attended the Ixalan Pre-release immediately before writing this post. I went 3-0-1 running Jund Dinosaurs (because I do what I want).

I split with round 4 opponent so we could each get the most packs.

This is the second time I’ve ever done so well at a pre-release. I haven’t gone 3-0-1 since Dragon’s Maze.

I’ve constructed a number of yugioh anime decks.

Along with buying The Ur-Dragon Commander 2017 pre-con. Ur-Dragon has since replaced Progentitus as my commander.

I bought a box of Battle of Light’s Revenge and multiple 2017 Starter decks.

I opened Triple Dimensional Barrier in 3 Mega Tins. Honestly it was a good haul all around.

I’ve bought the entire Yugioh collections of two people and absorbed most of the cards from a third person.

And I got to watch a Hane-Hane get hit by Raigeki

There is probably more, but I can’t think of anything else right now.

Yugioh September 18th 2017 Banlist (TCG)

Zoo died the death it deserved ages ago finally opening the format up to new strategies. True Draco is still viable as Master Peace Turbo. Dinosaurs are now OTK or bust. Lightsworns can sack better. Most of the other hits are irrelevant. There are tons of cards that should’ve been hit also, but I still like this banlist.

Whelp my eyes hurt…. like a lot. It’s time to stop.

What’s next for this blog? I honestly don’t know. I doubt I’ll have time to give it the attention it deserves. It may die. It may not. I thank you regardless for following the mad adventures of one man in his quest to perish suffocated under cardboard.

This is guest submitted. Please follow my buddy at https://1600hp.github.io/

Introduction

I’m going to try to keep this organized and focused, because there’s way more that I could say than anyone actually wants to read. But I feel like I need to get this written down.

When Link format hits, I’m not playing Yu-Gi-Oh anymore.

I already stopped playing in paper, dissolved my decks, and sold some of the more expensive stuff. I’ve kept playing a bit on YGOpro, because some habits are hard to break. But by the time this article is posted, I’ll have uninstalled that as well.

To understand why, I have to get into why I was playing the game. In terms popularized by Mark Rosewater here, I am a Johnny with a bit of Spike. That means that the enjoyment that I get out of card games is focused around creating something that is my own, and more specifically, something that is at least a little competitively viable.

For most of the six years I’ve played this game, that’s been possible. It’s certainly been difficult, and easier at some times than others (compare HAT format to Dragon Ruler format). On the whole, though, I’ve been able to play something that’s able to take games from top decks, and it’s been something that was wholely mine. I’m going to briefly talk about what I’ve played, because it might be relevant later. If you already know, or just don’t care, feel free to skip the following section.

Potatoes and Ghosts

In recent years, I’ve focused on two decks that I considered competitive. The first was originally created in the summer of 2014 as a Monster Mash deck. It’s progressed a lot over the subsequent years, but some aspects have persisted. I gave it the name “Potatoes” (Monster Mash > Mash > Mashed Potatoes).

When I finally stopped playing it in paper, it looked like this. It had transformed into an all-in OTK deck. I truly believe that this is the only form this deck can take. Any combo-oriented deck like this that isn’t meta probably can’t set up a strong enough turn 1 board consistently, because if it could, it would be meta. It probably also can’t play the long game, because you don’t have the resources to beat tier 1 strategies. As a result, the optimal way to win is to do it in one turn.

I didn’t like doing that. It generally is solitaire. The times when your opponent has interaction that it is possible to beat but non-obvious are few, so with enough practice I can essentially just play on auto-pilot around 90% of the time. It was the only way to stay viable, though.

To contrast with this strategy, I had made Ghostricks. This deck is generally considered a gimmicky stall deck, and I agree that it is often built that way. I think that’s very incorrect, though. I built it as a tempo deck, keeping your opponent off-balance for long enough to swing in with your Ghostrick Angels and the occasional beater provided by Rank-Up-Magic: Limited Barian’s Force. Somehow, when building it, I always ended up about 15 cards short, and there were a number of engines that could slot in. I liked Darkworlds, seen here.

Matchups varied widely. My favorite was against Shaddolls, pre-Construct ban (so 2015). The games tended to go into time, as both decks ended up playing the grind game, but I considered myself generally favored, with better recursion and innevitability.

Both of these decks are fun to play. I made both very much my own. I spent months on Ghosts, and years on Potatoes. And once the Link rules become official, neither will be playable anymore.

The Rules Change

So what’s so bad about Link summoning, anyway? I lived through Pendulum without quitting; what makes this different?

The difference is the rules change that’s accompanying the introduction of Link monsters. There are a number of subtleties, but the important point is that it is now basically impossible to have two extra deck monsters on your field without Link summoning. If you’ve ever seen a Yu-Gi-Oh video I’ve made, that’s kinda… all I do. Both of those decks and most of my others, my favorite things about this game, are dead to the rules change.

Now, I could work around it. Maybe I could update the decks to incorporate Link (which would involve drastic and difficult changes), or maybe I can make something new that’s my own in this new format. Personally, I find both those options very unappealing. Let’s talk about why.

Konami’s Precedent

As much as I can’t stand Konami’s policies and strategies when it comes to creating and banning cards, I have this to say for them. If you are a casual player, you’ve largely been left intact. It’s the competitive players, the tournament chasers, who get hurt by the banlists, by the poor card design and worse balancing. They know what they’re getting into. If you’re playing kitchen table Yu-Gi-Oh so to speak, the game is basically unchanged. Maybe it was hard to get used to the first-player-doesn’t-draw thing. Maybe it was confusing when a card that you used fairly got banned. What Konami has done here is far, far different.

There’s very little precedent for what they’ve done here, so it isn’t easy to evaluate all the implications, but it doesn’t look great.

What Could Have Been

Let’s pretend for a second that this change wasn’t purely profit-driven.

It’s nice, right?

One could imagine this being a way to slow the game down. Properly executed, Link rules could have made OTKs, extra deck lockdown fields, and similar completely impractical. I might have supported such a change. Make no mistake, though, this is not that. All the things that have sped Yu-Gi-Oh up over the past years are still present; the difference is just that in order to play them, you probably have to buy some link monsters. (As a side note, I know that not all tier 1 strategies use the extra deck. I’m mostly talking about those that do.)

The Power Gap

I don’t really mind power creep. The OTKs, the hard control decks, the combos… they’re all basically fine. What bothers me is the power gap. This is the difference in power level between tier 1 and tier 2, the difference between netdecking and brewing. It’s been widening. The prices of staples has gone insane in the past year, thanks to Konami’s tendency to push staples to secret rarity here in America. The power level of splashable engines hit a new high with Zoo, dominating the tournament scene and asking every duelist the question: “If you aren’t putting Zoodiacs in your deck… why aren’t you?”

For someone trying to do their own thing on the cheap, hoping to keep up through clever deckbuilding, tight play, and a bit of luck, this is a nightmare scenario.

Does Link summoning help the situation? I think not. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong. But I’m not sticking around to find out.

Homogenization

I’ll preface this by admitting that I haven’t really read most of the Link monsters. Hopefully that’s understandable. My understanding, though, is that the generic ones are… very generic. Requirements like that of Decode Talker (2+ Effect Monsters) and Proxy Dragon (2 Monsters) are additions to a trend of generalization that’s been active since 5Ds era.

Fusion monsters generally require 2+ specific monsters.

Synchro monsters are more generic, but have level requirements and must include a tuner.

Xyz monsters are more generic, doing away with the tuner.

Pendulums are more generic, replacing the specific level with a level range.

Why is this a problem? Well it isn’t really, but it is to someone who plays the game to create something for themselves. When the requirements to play the most powerful extra deck cards in the game are relaxed, there is little reason to play any but the best cards in your main deck. I consider this a more long-term part of why the power gap is widening. Compare the simple, brutal efficiency of rank 4 toolbox decks against the closest equivalent deck in the synchro era, Plant Synchro. The hoops the plant pilot had to jump through, and the delicate tuning of deck construction, far outweigh the considerations of the rank 4 player.

Again, I don’t really know if this will happen in the TCG metagame. I hope it won’t. But I’m still not sticking around to find out.

I’m Out, But You Don’t Have To Be

Listed out like this, there’s… a lot that can go wrong here. The thing is, though, most of it isn’t a problem for a lot of people.

I’ve kinda pigeonholed myself into the Johnny/Spike demographic, and looking back on it, Yu-Gi-Oh isn’t really the place for that kind of player. In retrospect, I’m surprised I lasted this long.

Most of the people I played with in person consistently are close to pure Spikes. They care about the competition, about getting the better of their opponent, proving themselves. For them, I expect Link format will be a lot of fun. The one outcome of the rules change that I consider positive is the drastic rise in complexity to the gameplay. Outside of deckbuilding, piloting a deck in this new era becomes more difficult, which provides more room for improvement, which provides a way to prove superiority through gameplay.

I wish them the best of luck. I’m not that kind of player.

The last thing I’ll do before uninstalling YGOpro is make a video as a summary of my Yu-Gi-Oh career. It’s been fun. I want to remember it. You can find that video here.

I entered the Hour of Devastation 2-headed giant pre-release earlier today. I was sold on this set for its flavor and story (mostly established characters like the gatewatch getting owned), unlike Amonkhet which was the first Magic Pre-Release I had skipped since I started playing. This summary is going to be pretty brief also.

Our Decks:

My partner played Green/White Midrange and I played Red/Black Control. MVP of my deck were the 4 copies of Open Fire.

Our Match-Ups:

Round 1: Vs 18 land UW Approach and 15 land WB Zombies

We started out in the standard sealed boardstall. They cast Unconventional Tactics on Wildfire Eternal which hit us allowing them to cast Approach of the Second Sun for free. We tried to race the Second Sun, but they stalled us out by combining Crested Sunmare with Mirage Mirror to make an army of indestructible horses. Eventually they drew into the 2nd sun and a 7th land defeating us.

Loss 0-1

Round 2: Vs Esper Gideon and Red/Green Midrange

I messed up this round and thought that Without Weakness could be used on any creature. I used it (2 of them in fact) to protect our Crop Elite from an Open Fire and an Invocation Slaughter Pact. None of us released this error for 2 turns and by then he had a huge lead. I should also point out that despite being Esper, our opponent never drew into land other than Swamp.

The Red/Green player kept a 1 lander and never drew a 3rd land. Our opponent’s only creature was the Maruading Boneslasher which could never block so we just kept attacking them.

Win 1-0

We won 6 packs, opened nothing to really warrant writing about and went home. This set is very cool in terms of flavor, not so much in terms of monetary value. Regardless it was at the least an interesting experience.